The National Data Protection Commission (NDPC), has said it is partnering with foreign Data Protection Authorities ( DPAs) to enforce Data laws outside the country.
The National Commissioner, Dr. Vincent Olatunji disclosed this on Tuesday at a Press Conference to launch the commission’s journal in Abuja.
Olatunji said with the partnership, the commission can prosecute anyone who violates the Nigerian data protection law irrespective of their country of resident.
According to the commissioner, the NDPC has signed Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) with some countries DPAs.
He said,”We have signed MoUs with some Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), like the Office of Data Protection of Canada. We signed MoU with them. We also signed with the Dubai International Financial Center Authority.
“We signed the MoUs because of the scope of our law, that if you collect and present the data of Nigeria, you are not fined in Nigeria, you are to be fined outside the country. You are within the scope of the law. Now the question is how will you enforce the law in the following countries.And that is why we need to work with DPAs in other countries for our laws to be enforced in their countries. And also for knowledge exchange. We are also looking at that now,” he said.
He also noted that domestically the commission is still signing MoUs with regulators to ensure full compliance.
” In addition to that, we are also signing with regulators in Nigeria, for them to properly regulate their sectors, to deepen data privacy for their stakeholders to comply with the provisions of the law.
“Even the private sector, we are also working with them to ensure that all we are doing in the area of MoUs is to ensure that we enforce the law, bolster data privacy in Nigeria, and we increase level of compliance to the provisions of the law.
He further disclosed that Nigeria has achieved a lot at the global level when it comes to data protection, and that it has not gone unnoticed,
“Because of the track record we’ve been able to achieve within the last two years, primarily after the law was signed. For instance, we were able to join the Global Privacy Assembly. Before we had the law, we actually applied to join as a country our application was rejected. But when the law was signed by Mr. President, we applied. And within one month, they approved our application. We are now a member of the Global Privacy Assembly.
“We are also a member of the Network of African Data Protection Authorities, made up of about 37 countries in Africa that have data protection laws and data protection authorities.
“And as a matter of fact, we are bringing all of them to Nigeria in May this year. That shows the recognition.For us to even be able to win that award, is a big deal of international recognition,” he said.
Chairman Association of Licenced Data Protection Compliance Organisation in Nigeria (ALDPCON), Ivan Anya while responding to the Dr. Olatunji’s said that, “When a law is enacted we look up to the effect it will have on the economy. Since I’ve been a data protection expert I’ve not seen any law that has such traction that the data protection law has. As dcpo in the areas that we have not done well we are putting things in place to build on what we have achieved.”